Career 1 Sourcehttp://career1source.com
Recruiting ExpertsThu, 11 Jan 2018 14:18:01 +0000en-UShourly1https://wordpress.org/?v=4.9.4Are Counter Offers Counter Productive?http://career1source.com/are-counter-offers-counter-productive/
Mon, 11 Sep 2017 15:55:48 +0000http://career1source.com/?p=3535The competition for talent is ever growing and many companies are taking more strides to keep top talent within their organizations. Productive measures such as team assessments, management evaluations, helping employees build a framework to advancement and continuing to build on an employee’s strengths are all steps in the right direction, but what happens when […]

]]>The competition for talent is ever growing and many companies are taking more strides to keep top talent within their organizations. Productive measures such as team assessments, management evaluations, helping employees build a framework to advancement and continuing to build on an employee’s strengths are all steps in the right direction, but what happens when that’s not enough? When an employee receives a job offer from another company, should you make a counter offer?

Counter offers typically offer an enticing financial component, but at the end of the day, the reasons for that employee seeking a new opportunity typically have more to do with lack of career path, lack of challenge, management issues, etc. More money typically comes with a career change, but just throwing more money at an employee to try to keep them only provides a temporary band-aid.

Do Counter Offers Work?

Statistics show that 80% of people who have accepted a counter offer will not be with that employer in six months and 93% will not be there in eighteen months’ time. That basically says that 7% of counter offers retain top talent for longer than eighteen months.

It may bide you time in finding a replacement, but will there now be a trust factor wedged in the relationship between you and that employee, things will more than likely just not “go back to normal”.

Employee Morale

As much as we’d like to think employees keep these conversations confidential, more than likely it will get out that employee X received a counteroffer to stay. And if you made a counter offer to one employee and not another, will others deem the employee that stayed a “favorite” and be resentful. Is team resentment worth the risk?

It’s not really about the money

If the counteroffer only provides more money to the individual, is that really solving the issues as to why they tried to leave to begin with? More money may seem to make it better for the short term, but after a while those same concerns will rise again if they are not fully addressed. Money doesn’t solve everything.

Trust

With the statistics mentioned above, if someone accepts a counteroffer, it has set a precedent to question their loyalty going forward. How long will they really stay before they have another job offer that they accept or you cannot make another counter offer against?

Everyone wants a counter offer

Other employees may now be spurred to go out and get another job offer in hopes to receive a counter offer and make more money.

Payroll Issues

If you do make a counter offer that an individual accepts, how does that affect the compensation parameters for others in the same role. More than likely other employees will find out and then there could be resentment that an individual is not being paid more than everyone else. Again, is the counter offer worth the potential morale issues within the team.

There are a few situations where counter offers do seem to work and keep the peace with everyone, but more often than not, they tend to cause other issues and with 80% of individuals who accept a counter offer are gone in 6 months anyway, is it really in your best interest to make one to begin with. More than likely not.

Being proactive in understanding your employees, their goals and having open communication, will be a much better way to prevent an employee from leaving than a counter offer ever will.

]]>5 Ways to Hire a Candidate that Matches your Company Culturehttp://career1source.com/5-ways-to-hire-a-candidate-that-matches-your-company-culture/
Mon, 28 Aug 2017 19:21:38 +0000http://career1source.com/?p=3533Company culture is the DNA of your workforce, and is made up of the goals, vision and values of every employee. Depending on the culture fit of your next hire, they can either reinforce your company’s mission, or they can dilute it. As well, because younger job seekers are now placing more importance on company […]

]]>Company culture is the DNA of your workforce, and is made up of the goals, vision and values of every employee. Depending on the culture fit of your next hire, they can either reinforce your company’s mission, or they can dilute it. As well, because younger job seekers are now placing more importance on company culture, finding a candidate that embodies your values is crucial for all.

Assessing a candidate’s potential culture fit isn’t quite the same as measuring up skills and experiences from a resume, so here are 5 ways to hire a candidate who matches your company culture.

1. Communicate your values

It’s important to communicate your values clearly throughout the whole hiring process, and your job ad is a great place to start. Use your job description to communicate your company culture by setting out your values, but also describing the environment and nature of how you work. Try to go beyond just stating your values, by describing examples of how you live by them. A detailed discussion with your recruiting consultant can aide in an overall smoother recruiting process so that candidates who do not match your values are taken out early in the recruiting process.

Clearly defining your company values in the job description will attract the characters you want, as well as encouraging candidate self-selection, saving you precious time. Moreover when your new hire starts, these values will already be instilled on them.

2. Ask open-ended questions

Steer the interview flow more towards a conversation rather than a rigid question-answer interview, and let them do the talking. Asking standard questions can result in rehearsed answers that don’t fully reflect a candidate’s personality. Behavioral, open-ended questions gives a candidate the opportunity to think on the spot and speak freely, allowing their personality to show so you can assess a more authentic response.

Here are some interview questions you could ask to help assess culture fit:

Why do you want to work here?

What’s your ideal work environment?

Tell me about a time you made a mistake. How did you address it and what did you learn?

What inspires you?

What are your hobbies?

What type of culture do you thrive in?

Describe yourself in three words.

What values are you drawn to and what’s your ideal workplace?

What’s your favorite aspect of your current position?

How would you describe our culture based on what you’ve seen?

Talk about a time you worked as part of a team.

What do you like best about our company?

How do you define success?

What best practices would you bring with you from another organization?

Tell me something about you that isn’t on your resume

3. Have more than one interviewer

If possible, involve more key employees in the hiring process rather than relying on one interviewer. This can indicate a fairer assessment of a candidate’s potential cultural fit, distinguishing that from a personal connection of an individual interviewer. Company culture is not down to one person, it comes from all employees, and having a more collaborative assessment where more voices are heard can lead to a better cultural fit hire that’s agreed by the many.

4. Show them around

Show your candidate the wider picture of your company by giving them a tour around the office. Environment is a great indication of culture, and this allows for a two-way assessment where the candidate can have a better feel for your company and the team they might potentially work with. This insight will let them better determine whether it really is the company they want to be part of. Likewise, this gives you the chance to see how the candidate interacts with other employees; pay attention to their comfort level, and overall behavior.

5. Diversify

Lastly, there is a risk of discrimination when looking for the right culture fit. It’s important to remember that culture fit isn’t about hiring people who are all the same, it’s about individuals who share your vision, goals and values. You should be able to find these attributes in candidates from all backgrounds, and your company values can and should be reflected through a richly diverse team of talent.

]]>15 Signs Your Employee Is Ready To Managehttp://career1source.com/15-signs-your-employee-is-ready-to-manage/
Thu, 20 Jul 2017 18:30:58 +0000http://career1source.com/?p=3530Promoting from within is good business, but which team members are actually manager-worthy? Chances are, there are a few great leaders on your team that aren’t yet in managerial positions. Some of them may already take on the role of a manager without claiming the title, while others may show subtle signs that they’ve got […]

]]>Promoting from within is good business, but which team members are actually manager-worthy?

Chances are, there are a few great leaders on your team that aren’t yet in managerial positions. Some of them may already take on the role of a manager without claiming the title, while others may show subtle signs that they’ve got what it takes to lead.

Just as the wrong hire is costly, so is the wrong promotion. A recent article in Inc. magazine polled 15 leaders to get their thoughts on identifying leadership potential. While there are no “silver bullets,” everything listed is a strong indicator of the aptitude it takes to lead, and should be included in your decision to promote from within.

1. They change their vocabulary from “mine” to “ours.”
Going from being an employee to a manager occurs when team members hit a tipping point. It’s normally a point when they begin to understand a manager’s point of view. Look for subtle changes in a team member’s conduct. This may be a simple choice of words. An employee may use the term I, mine or me. Those ready to assume a management role may choose words like ours, we or us.

2. They prove they can manage themselves.
One key indicator that an employee has really come into their own is when they require less and less time to manage. They know what needs to be done and make sure it happens, they learn to spot opportunities and coordinate actions to seize them. The only way someone can ever hope to be a manager is if they can manage themselves, and this is typically evidence enough that they’re ready.

3. They look out for others.
If an employee is concerned for their co-worker’s success as much as their own on a group project, that’s usually a very good sign you have a team player that wants others to succeed. Great managers are selfless leaders that want the unit to succeed together.

4. They take responsibility.
A sign of a leader ready to take on a managerial role is the ability to take responsibility for themselves or the team. The people you lead will give you respect if you own your decisions, regardless of the outcome.

5. They excel above expectations.
The sign of a good leader is if they are going above and beyond consistently. When you naturally see them leading others in all their work–when they excel far above expectations in everything they are doing–it’s time for a promotion. You don’t want to lose them to someone else that’s willing to give them that promotion when you’re not!

6. They actually want to take it on.
It’s very simple. The most important sign is that they want to be in a managerial role and they ask for it.

7. They’ve mastered their technical craft.
Once team members have mastered their technical craft–but before they get bored–I begin to explore their interest in leading others. Some people are quite content in their individual contributor role, and there’s nothing wrong with that. Others, however, crave opportunities that bring new challenges.

8. They already manage without realizing it.
When a staff member is ready to take on a managerial role, they’ve already taken on a managerial role without realizing it. Often, I’ll notice that they’re helping other employees with the marketing plans, giving advice on how to deal with a difficult client, or making the new intern feel welcome. When somebody truly wants to be in that role, they do it without even trying because they enjoy it.

9. They go above and beyond in completing their tasks.
It’s very telling when someone goes above and beyond, completing required tasks and ensuring everything is effectively coordinated with the team. If they have a natural affinity for this kind of coordination, they are probably a good fit.

10. They show ingenuity.
A great manager is someone who not only manages existing tasks, but also takes initiative in creating or improving other tasks and processes for the benefit of the company. Potential managers who demonstrate these traits also tend to display ingenuity and critical thinking in the ways they perform on a daily basis, which tells me they are ready to take on more responsibilities.

11. They look for solutions.
I am always looking for my team to bring me solutions instead of problems. A good manager will understand and have mastered this art form.

12. They help others.
When I see team members going to a certain person with questions, that’s a clue. When that person has the answer or promises to seek out and deliver the answer, they’re on my radar for moving up into management. When they help other team members and still accomplish their own job, that’s the definition of a good manager.

13. They show ownership.
One sign is that the employee regularly shows a feeling of pride and ownership in their work. Leading a team is about understanding the big picture and internalizing not only what it will take to get there, but understanding how the assets available to you can help you realize that picture. Employees who approach every task as if its success or failure is a direct reflection on them are on track.

14. They volunteer for leadership roles.
A team member who steps up to the plate and takes a leadership role (whether it’s in a team project setting or other environment) is sure to be ready for management. These situations present themselves often, and those who take the bull by the horns are the ones who are ready for the next step.

15. They’re proactive.
I never want my employees to be on auto-pilot, but there is something to be said when a team member jumpstarts their workload without me having to instruct them further. When I find team members proactively asking questions to improve their output to the company, that’s when I know they’re ready.

]]>Why Some Top Performers May Not Fit Your Organizationhttp://career1source.com/why-some-top-performers-may-not-fit-your-organization/
Wed, 14 Jun 2017 18:16:37 +0000http://career1source.com/?p=3527For the past year and a half we worked with a specific client assessing their new and current employees to see if there were any conclusions we could draw about their top and bottom performers. All new hires had stellar resumes, great experience and had been top salesmen in prior roles, but some were not […]

For the past year and a half we worked with a specific client assessing their new and current employees to see if there were any conclusions we could draw about their top and bottom performers.

All new hires had stellar resumes, great experience and had been top salesmen in prior roles, but some were not performing in this new role.

We assessed the top 20% and bottom 20% salespeople and what we found was very telling.

All top performers had either Extroversion or Dominance as their highest trait.

All top performers had a 100% Thrust Energy Style, which measures how they start, sustain and complete tasks.

80% of the bottom performers had Pace (high patience) as their highest trait, with 20% being Extroversion.

But the kicker that helped to separate the 20% of the extroverts mentioned above is that 100% of the bottom salespeople had Allegiance as their highest Energy Trait.

The conclusion about the data tells us these prior successful salesmen were in a role where they were continuing to service a very established customer base. They were allegiant to these customers and the customers were loyal to them. They were not having to go out and gain new business on a daily basis, only foster the business they had and try to grow it.

Unfortunately, their prior experience did not match the culture at this organization. This company was new to the market, didn’t have an established customer base and their name was not known. It took people who could go out every day and knock on doors and persevere to build a business. It also required a very specific personality profile to excel in this position.

After the assessment, the client knew exactly what to look for and realized that just because someone boasts a previously successful past somewhere else, doesn’t always translate into success in a new role. Environment is key and knowing what you need in each specific role will help to identify top performers PRIOR to the hire.

We can help to identify what your target new hires should look like!

To read the complete White Paper, Identify Top Performers Before You Hire, by Mark Waschek, please click here.

If you have questions or would like to know more about how we can assist you in a similar assessment, please reach out to Mike Koenecke at 620-327-0320.

]]>What to Say and Do When Your Employee Has Another Job Offerhttp://career1source.com/what-to-say-and-do-when-your-employee-has-another-job-offer/
Tue, 16 May 2017 14:23:58 +0000http://career1source.com/?p=3522by Amy Gallo; Harvard Business Review It’s normal to get a sinking feeling when one of your employees says, “I have something to tell you.” No manager wants to hear that someone on their team has another job offer in hand. But how should you actually respond to the news? Should you counteroffer? Or just […]

It’s normal to get a sinking feeling when one of your employees says, “I have something to tell you.” No manager wants to hear that someone on their team has another job offer in hand. But how should you actually respond to the news? Should you counteroffer? Or just accept that they’re moving on? And how can you tell if the employee is just bluffing to get a raise?

What the Experts Say
The reality is people leave jobs — and not always on the schedule you’d prefer. Instead of panicking, make the most of the situation. “Whether or not the employee ends up taking the other offer, this is a rich opportunity,” says Dick Grote performance management consultant and author of the HBR Tools on Goal Setting and Performance Reviews. It should be a moment of self-reflection for you as a manager, adds Claudio Fernández-Aráoz, a senior adviser at global executive search firm Egon Zehnder and author of It’s Not the How or the What but the Who: Succeed by Surrounding Yourself with the Best, a chance to “learn more about your own organization, your team, and yourself.” Here’s how.

Keep your cool and listen
Don’t react to your employee’s news right away—no matter how frustrated or blindsided you might feel. Instead, solicit more information. Grote suggests you simply say, “Tell me more.” This will not only buy you time so you can “get your wits together” but will also give you the information you need to “gather the material facts about the offer.” Fernández-Aráoz agrees. “Immediately make as much time as possible to let the person tell you in great detail about the company, the sector, the boss, the colleagues, and the job.” He also suggests asking questions focused on what he calls the “four Ts”: the task (what they will do), the time (when they will do it), the team (who they will do it with), and the technique (how they will do it). This conversation should ideally happen face-to-face. If the person has sent you an email and you work in the same location, “hustle right over” to their desk, says Grote. If you aren’t in the same office, consider getting together or at least setting up a Skype call, suggests Fernández-Aráoz. “Nothing beats personal presence for openness and candor, which is what both sides badly need in a situation like this.”

Call out clear bluffs
Sometimes an employee will use an offer as leverage to get a raise or promotion out of you. Fernández-Aráoz says that you can often figure out whether the person would really leave by asking the detailed questions mentioned above and watching for nonverbal cues that indicate genuine excitement. If you are sure they don’t plan on following through, don’t be afraid to call their bluff. “If it’s real, then the employee is probably going to leave anyway, and if it’s not, you’ve got some information about the quality of the person you’re dealing with,” says Grote.

Consider the employee’s value — and act accordingly
Once you’ve listened and better understand the competing job offer, what you do next will depend on how badly you want to retain the person. “Every manager should have a pretty clear idea of where people fit in terms of their value to the team and the organization,” says Grote. Ideally, you’ve already been “taking steps to retain those who are high on the list and managing out those who are low on the list.” So carry on that work here.

If you’re not sad to see the employee go: “Sometimes the appropriate response is to just be grateful,” says Grote. Do find out why the person is leaving – the information could help you retain the rest of your team – but then just wish the person well and start planning for their transition out. You should “use this opportunity to promote a high potential who may be ready for the job, or, if you really have no qualified internal candidates, hire someone better,” Fernández-Aráoz says.

If the employee is a star:Make every effort to understand how the other opportunity compares to what you can offer, and then highlight the benefits of staying. Spend time “educating the person about what they will gain” if they stick with you, whether that is further learning, future increases in salary or bonuses over time, or more opportunities for promotions and growth, Grote says. Also, try to make accommodations that make staying more appealing. You might, for example, consider making changes to the employee’s role or offering them more training. Although you might be tempted to counter-offer, Fernández-Aráoz advises against it because in most cases it can “backfire.” He says the only exception should be when the departure would cause you huge damage. Grote agrees: Counter-offers give “only a temporary gain because the employee realizes that you’ve been holding out on them and the word gets out that this is how you get more money.”

Don’t burn bridges
Even if a valuable employee decides to leave, don’t hold a grudge. Instead, set up a time for an exit interview so that you can gather more feedback and suggestions on the job, the organization, and yourself as a manager. At the same time, plan “a proper farewell celebration, or lunch, with the team,” says Fernández-Aráoz. “It’s important to thank the employee, and celebrate when you and your company have helped someone develop and grow, even if the time to work together has come to an end.” Stay in touch too. A community of alumni employees “becomes a very attractive selling point when hiring,” he says.

Prevent the next departure
One side benefit of your employees getting other job offers is the “competitive intelligence” you get as a result, says Grote. “What are other employers offering? What is likely to make other people leave?” This will help you improve your retention efforts. “Too often the first time the employee finds out how valued they are is in the exit interview,” says Grote. Also keep an informal, running list of your most valuable employees, in terms of “competence potential and values,” says Fernández-Aráoz, and check in with them regularly to make sure there are no flight risks.

Principles to Remember

Do:

Ask detailed questions about the other job offer.

Explain the benefits of staying if you want the employee to stay.

Know who on your team is most valuable.

Don’t:

Show your frustration, even if you’re upset or feel betrayed.

Immediately counteroffer — it can backfire.

Be afraid to call the employee’s bluff if you think they’re not serious about leaving.

Case study #1: Find out exactly why
Rachel Bitte, the chief people officer at Jobvite, often advises people on how to handle employee departures, so she wasn’t surprised when one of her HR business partners gave his notice. Since he was a valued employee who “fit the profile for what we wanted for the role and for the company,” she pushed to learn more, asking “push-pull questions” like “What motivated you to make this change?” and “Was there a trigger point like a performance review?” to figure out if he was being pulled somewhere else or being pushed out by the circumstances of his current role.

She didn’t try to get everything in that first chat though. “Sometimes you wind up having a richer conversation with someone after the anxiety of breaking the news has passed,” she explains. Although the partner initially told her the new job was a better opportunity with more compensation, he later admitted that he didn’t think his career would progress fast enough in his current role. Rachel next asked her boss to talk to him to “show that we were interested in salvaging him but also learning” and she talked to others at the company to get their perspective on why the partner was considering leaving.

In the end, “he had made up his mind about what was important to him” and he moved on. But Rachel didn’t see his departure as a failing on her part because it helped her better understand who should fill the role. “Things change in people’s lives — family, company, criteria. If he wanted to move that fast in his career, he was right that it wasn’t the ideal match.”

Case study #2: Address concerns if you can
One of the consultants at the Catalyst Consulting Group, a boutique professional services company, recently came to managing partner Ronald Recardo to tell him that he’d been offered a senior role in a private equity company. Ronald was surprised because the man had been one of his “go-to” staff members and would soon be up for partner. So he asked him to meet for a drink and dinner to discuss his rationale for leaving. “The net of it was [that] he was very happy with the leadership we were providing, his compensation, and intellectual stimulation. The only issue for him was the frequency and distance of travel,” Ronald explains. Many of Catalyst’s consultants are on the road 80% of the time and this one was keen to start a family and spend more time with an elderly parent.

Because Ronald wanted to keep him, he got creative about changing his role. He asked the consultant, who was an exceptional writer, to focus on managing the firm’s blog, writing articles, and updating its marketing collateral — a shift that would reduce his travel by 25% and allow him to work from home two days a week. On those terms, he agreed to stay and Ronald thinks it will be a “win-win” for both sides.

Case study #3: Resist the counteroffer
Cheri Spets Farmer, the principal consultant at Grace Bay Group came very close to losing a valued team member when she was the general sales manager at a television station. The employee, an account manager, “contributed unique skills to the team. He was better at his job than anyone else we’d ever had in that position.” But one day he came to her office after work hours and let her know that he was expecting an offer from another station in another market soon.

She engaged him in “a heart-to-heart” about why he wanted to leave and learned that he felt undervalued. She was focusing too heavily on problematic employees and failing to adequately support him. When she asked how he wanted to see his career progress, he explained that he wanted more responsibility and recognition. Cheri knew that was something she could give him. So, instead of making a counteroffer, she promised to get him more “engaged and vested in his role.” “I put him in an un-official manager-training program,” she explains. “I made it a point to bring him into meetings he would not normally be invited to and asked for his input in front of the other team members.” He was much happier in his role because he could see that he was “a trusted asset.”

]]>Taking the Madness Out of the Hiring Processhttp://career1source.com/taking-the-madness-out-of-the-hiring-process/
Mon, 20 Mar 2017 16:43:44 +0000http://career1source.com/?p=3515It’s that time of the year, March Madness, where millions of American’s fill out their NCAA Basketball brackets and watch breathlessly round by round to see if their favorites move on or underdogs rise to the top. Some people complete their bracket on a whim, but many others put a lot of calculated effort into […]

]]>It’s that time of the year, March Madness, where millions of American’s fill out their NCAA Basketball brackets and watch breathlessly round by round to see if their favorites move on or underdogs rise to the top. Some people complete their bracket on a whim, but many others put a lot of calculated effort into choosing their teams, pouring over statistics and other sources to make sure their choices are solid.

Hiring employees can be a lot like choosing teams for a bracket. Some choices are made more on instinct or a “gut feel.” Other employers desire more evidence and proof that their choices are as solid as possible.

What if there was a way to provide stronger statistical evidence to show the likelihood of a candidate working in a particular role? What if the hiring team could have input on what that candidate profile should look like? It would be like having ESPN rank each candidate with many of the pros and cons on each. No candidate is ever perfect, just as no NCAA team is guaranteed to win the National Championship, but having as much information in front of you to make a sound decision is beneficial to all involved.

Hopefully your hiring statistics are better than the success most of us have when filling out our brackets. If not, we have an arsenal of tools that can help you make more informed choices and continue to increase your ability to hire and retain the correct candidate.

Hesston, KS – March 1, 2017 – Career 1 Source, an executive search firm headquartered in Hesston, KS today announced that Ted McDermott will join their Technology and IT Industry Practice Team.

“We’re excited to have Ted on board with us,” says Mike Smith, President/CEO. “We have had a number of clients express recruitment and talent acquisition needs within the Technology and IT space. We look for Ted to quickly make an impact given his strong network and industry experience.”

Ted brings over 15 years of Technology and IT industry experience to the Career 1 Source team. He has a strong leadership background and that experience provides him with an appreciation for the challenges hiring managers face in sourcing and hiring top IT talent. In addition, job seekers will have a trusted partner in the job search process knowing they are working with someone who understands the industry and who will be able to assist them in finding just the right fit.

”I’m excited to join the Career 1 Source team,” says Ted. “I’m looking forward to building relationships and helping my clients find top talent within the industry.”

About Career 1 Source

The Career 1 Source mission is to provide clients with value-based human resource solutions that are founded on integrity, desired results, and a passion for excellence. Career 1 Source consultants are experienced in the industry specialties in which they recruit and that experience enables them to identify and attract the best talent in the market, not just on the market.

]]>Beware of Hiring Your Competitor’s Sales Peoplehttp://career1source.com/beware-of-hiring-your-competitors-sales-people/
Mon, 09 Jan 2017 14:34:50 +0000http://career1source.com/?p=3490Life would be grand if we could sprinkle a few seeds in the ground, fertilize, add water…and a great sales person would sprout. This is truly a pipedream, but one often pursued by small business owners and sales management executives in their quest to find great sales talent. Rather than grow their own, they attempt […]

]]>Life would be grand if we could sprinkle a few seeds in the ground, fertilize, add water…and a great sales person would sprout. This is truly a pipedream, but one often pursued by small business owners and sales management executives in their quest to find great sales talent. Rather than grow their own, they attempt to steal the crops from their competitors. Why not, their competitor is much better at growing a sales organization than they are. They will grab some magic from their competitor’s land and they too can enjoy great success.

When did the competition begin building a better sales organization than your company? Before you harvest their crop, consider these five myths when hiring your competitor’s sales people.

“Hiring from the competitor means the sales person will hit the ground running with no training.” Some of the attraction to the competitors’ sales people is sheer laziness. Hire a sales person from the competitor today…instant revenue tomorrow. No need to train them, they already know everything. Needless to say, this is flawed thinking. Sales people always need training and development regardless of who their former employer was.

That said, every once in a while, lightning will strike and you will hire a rainmaker. More often than not, this approach is a recipe for a making a bad hire. A thought…What sales people do you really think are available from the competition? Rarely is it the top performers. It’s the bottom 20% that, truth be told, the company is glad to see leave.

“Our industry is so complex that we must hire a sales person from within it.”

How can this be true? No one ever came out of the womb mastering your industry…not even you. You were taught it and so was everyone else. If you truly feel that industry experience is the top requirement, be prepared for another major challenge…scalability. There are only so many people in your industry and very few that you will consider hiring. At some point, your talent pool will run dry.

Sales people need to have a certain level of knowledge to effectively sell in an industry. Determine what they need to know to be effective and develop training tools to quickly get them up to speed. Identify resources in your company that can help them with their questions. Test their knowledge assimilation along the way to make sure they are getting it.

“They’re going to bring a book of business with them.” Before you buy that argument, consider these three points. First, despite what they tell you, it is extremely difficult to move clients. The pain of change is not one that is easily resolved with clients. It is rare to find a sales person with that strong of an influence to overcome that issue.

Second, the sales person doesn’t own those clients, their employer does. While non-competes don’t usually hold up in court, client list protection does. And, you can be at risk in the mess. Do you really need that headache?

Third, don’t think for a minute that the sales person you hire today will one day retire with your firm. They will leave your employ some day. Imagine your sales person attempting to take your clients with them when they go. It doesn’t feel overly ethical, does it? And, it’s a flawed reason to hire a sales person.

“We’re a little firm and we could really use a sales person that comes from one of our large competitors.” This statement is true if, and only if, your company and the large competitor are identical twins. A synergistic match between your company and the candidate is needed to put together a long-lasting sales marriage. There are a number of nuances that affect this synergy.

The flaw with this statement is that it assumes a complete sales culture match. Every sales organization is different, even within the same industry. The large competitor may have a ton of sales support for prospecting and presentations, while in your company the entire burden is on the sales person. The sales person at the competitor may enjoy great name recognition in the marketplace while you do not. Thus, a different skill set is needed to get in the door with prospects. The list goes on and on. The key is develop a profile of your ideal sales candidate with the required and desired attributes and interview accordingly.

“Since they have been in the industry, they are passionate about it and passion sells.” Absolutely true! Passion sells, but it’s an incorrect assumption that these sales people arrive with passion. Sales people who bounce from company to company in an industry become “vanilla.”

Years ago, I had a sales person on my team who had sold for three of our competitors prior to joining our company. I participated in a ride-along sales call with her and the meeting was interesting to say the least. She could have had any of her former employer’s business cards in her hand, or ours for that matter, and everything she said was accurate. There was no passion. It was all vanilla information that failed to arouse any excitement in the prospect.

Our Job Scan product does just this, it helps our clients build a profile of the ideal candidate. Not only on personality traits, but also considers things like their ability to finish what they start, are they high achievers and how do they make decisions, intuition or needs proof. This is built from your team’s input on what will be successful in this role. To find out more about our Job Scan and other assessment tools, click here.

]]>Six Reasons Your Best Employees Quit Youhttp://career1source.com/six-reasons-your-best-employees-quit-you/
Wed, 07 Dec 2016 19:32:44 +0000http://career1source.com/?p=3479By Louis Efron There’s a saying that employees don’t leave companies, they leave managers – and today they are leaving more often than ever. According to recent Department of Labor statistics, the average tenure of an employee in the U.S. is now only 1.5 years. What do these numbers mean? Are managers doing that bad […]

There’s a saying that employees don’t leave companies, they leave managers – and today they are leaving more often than ever. According to recent Department of Labor statistics, the average tenure of an employee in the U.S. is now only 1.5 years. What do these numbers mean? Are managers doing that bad of a job engaging and retaining their people. Is this churn and burn dynamic the new norm?

Wherever the macro trends are headed, the ability to engage and retain talented employees is a critical skill for managers. Here are six reasons good employees quit you and how to keep them – none of which involves throwing a pile of money around:

1) No Vision

Most employees don’t get out of bed each morning trying to hit a profit number. In the majority of companies there are only a handful of people that truly care about it or, in some cases, even understand exactly what it means to hit that number. As a manager, don’t confuse your financial objectives with vision. Vision feeds financials and not the other way around.

For example, Walt Disney was the master of painting a compelling vision of the future. He dreamed up Disneyland while his two young daughters were riding the carousel at Griffith Park in Los Angeles. Sitting on a park bench with other parents, he envisioned a place where both children and adults could play together. Today, Walt Disney’s vision is worth $128 billion and is his company is the largest media conglomerate in the world. Successful managers sell their employees on a vision of the future.

2) No Connection To The Big Picture

Gallup’s Q12 employee engagement survey asks the following question: “The mission or purpose of my company makes me feel my job is important.” Their extensive research shows that there is a direct correlation between how employees rate that one question and employee retention, customer metrics, productivity, and profitability. Gallup concludes that “The best workplaces give their employees a sense of purpose, help them feel they belong, and enable them to make a difference.”

One example of this dynamic is Google. While almost no one understands exactly how Google’s search engine works, its mission is clear: “to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.” It is a simple, actionable, and meaningful connection to the huge company. Successful companies and managers understand that business strategies may change, but a mission does not.

3) No Empathy

No one joining the workforce today expects to get a gold Rolex after 50 years with the same company. Employers let hundreds and thousands of people go each year while employees are just as likely to leave companies for other opportunities. Generally speaking, there is very little loyalty on either side. But there is an almost ridiculously simple and inexpensive solution for that problem: Take the time to listen to your people.

This is not just talk therapy – they should leave the conversation believing that you will take whatever action may be helpful and possible or at least logically explain why nothing can be done. But by leaving your door open to employee concerns and suggestions, leaders encourage them to feel that they have a stake in an organization that considers them important and cares enough to listen.

4) No (Effective) Motivation

In the 1990s, I spent several years working as a producer and director of Off Broadway productions. This wasn’t particularly lucrative work and I had to take on waiter jobs to pay my rent. But for theater aficionados like me, waiting tables was just a side job to enable me to do what I loved. In what I considered my “real work,” the rewards frequently consisted of internal gratification or audience applause. I certainly wouldn’t have turned down a big payday, but I could walk away from a poorly paid performance satisfied that I had done good work.

On the other hand, as a waiter I measured my success in cash, by the tips I had made. I rarely ended a poorly paid shift simply happy to have provided really good service. What’s more, because my job as a waiter offered nothing more than an opportunity to walk away with cash in hand, my connection to my employer was also monetized – a surprisingly weak connection.

In his 2009 book Drive, author Daniel Pink examined decades of social experiments that described the phenomenon that I had experienced in terms of “extrinsic” and “intrinsic” motivators. The “extrinsic” motivators consist of traditional carrot and stick rewards such as cash bonuses or punishment – the reward environment in which waiters work.

The “intrinsic” motivators are internal desires to do good work or create a successful product – the goal of many people working in the theatre. Pink’s argument is that, in the modern workplace, the “extrinsic” system of rewards is often a less effective motivator, but one on which too many managers still rely. In fact, there is no greater myth in managing a team or company than believing financial compensation is a sufficient incentive to engage and retain top talent and drive high performance.

5) No Future

In her Forbes article “What Employers Need To Know About The Class of 2012,” Jacquelyn Smith cites a recent study that shows that the majority of graduating students are looking for career advancement over anything else. This is certainly not a new concept, but a big disconnect from today’s burn and churn, transient employment market.

Creating career paths that are well communicated and understood by employees is not something most companies do well. Even in the best-case scenario where managers are holding regular performance reviews with their employee, employees often don’t understand how to move either horizontally or vertically in an organization. Of course, not every employee is going to end up as the CEO. Likewise, a person who is brilliant at product design won’t necessarily succeed in sales. But, for any employee that is worth retaining, a manager must make clear to them how and where they can move forward on their career path.

6) No Fun

For many employees, instant gratification is the new norm. The evolution of film, television, the internet, social media, and handheld devices means that everything is on demand all the time and wherever we may be. As a result, putting in eight straight hours of work at the same desk is less and less attractive to many employees. But this doesn’t mean the work force is lazier, it’s because defining work in such a traditional manner doesn’t make sense to employees in today’s constantly interconnected and fast-paced world.

For businesses, this means that attracting, engaging, and retaining top talent depends on reinventing their work environments, blurring the line between work and play. Companies must embrace a culture of increased autonomy and innovation, and engage employees around a powerful mission and purpose.

In 2003, Best Buy’s H.R. leaders began piloting a new approach to this engagement problem. Slowly, department-by-department, they rolled out a program called ROWE (Results-Only Work Environment) that relied on increased employee engagement by reducing work to a baseline: productivity. That was it!

Employees were released from a world of mandatory meetings, nine-to-five schedules, and long commutes. It was a radical departure and the results were emphatically positive, engagement rose, causing a spike in performance. The pilot continued until it was adopted throughout the entire Best Buy headquarters operation. In 2006 the company was included on Fortune’s list of America’s Most Admired Companies.

Of course, ROWE was designed to relieve the tedium of office work and there are serious limitations to this specific program. It is hard to imagine how a schedule-free, post-geographic work environment could be successful for a restaurant or a roofing company. And, sure enough, Best Buy was unable to roll out a version of ROWE to help combat the company’s 67% turnover rate at their retail stores. But the biggest lessons of ROWE’s measurable success – thinking about work as fun and flexible – can still be applied to any size and type of business, creating more productive work environments at every level.

]]>Bye Bye, Baby Boomers: Hiring the Next Generation of Managershttp://career1source.com/bye-bye-baby-boomers-hiring-the-next-generation-of-managers/
Thu, 10 Nov 2016 14:16:15 +0000http://career1source.com/?p=3472written by Elizabeth Silas-Havas When you picture hiring new managers over the next few years, the “commitment-shy narcissist” is likely at the bottom of your list. Yet Millennials—long stereotyped with those types of traits—are starting to take on more serious roles within organizations. With approximately 10,000 Baby Boomers retiring each day, Generation X continues to […]

When you picture hiring new managers over the next few years, the “commitment-shy narcissist” is likely at the bottom of your list. Yet Millennials—long stereotyped with those types of traits—are starting to take on more serious roles within organizations.

With approximately 10,000 Baby Boomers retiring each day, Generation X continues to move up the ranks and take on more senior and executive leadership positions. Studies estimate that more than 25% of Millennial workers will become managers for the first time in 2016.

Are you doing enough to attract and foster the best of the next generation of leaders?

Millennials as Managers: What You Need to Know

Strong leaders in an organization can maximize efficiency, motivate employees, and set and achieve long-range goals. Younger workers are starting to fill those leadership roles, and most of them (91%) aspire to do so. In fact, 31% aspire to C-level positions. Stereotypes aside, are these potential leaders getting the training and making the opportunities that prepare them for these high-level functions?

Most Millennials think they have already begun to build some strengths to become a leader. More than half of them surveyed said the most important leadership skills are communication and relationship building; most also reported that those were among their strongest skills. Yet they are also aware of their weaknesses: 43% think they are shakiest in industry experience and 41% report feeling a lack of technical expertise.

This may have to do with the new norm of switching jobs more frequently. The very nature of job-hopping makes it challenging to gain true industry experience and technical expertise.

In addition, perhaps Millennials are distinctly aware of how complex, multidimensional, and mutable the roles of their organizations are in a time of both convergence and divergence. These results would show, then—thankfully—the opposite of a Dunning–Kruger effect in this generation. They know how much they don’t yet know.

Setting Younger Generations Up for Leadership Success

Some organizations need to change what they emphasize to bring younger workers up through the ranks and keep top talent. To become a more attractive employer, you may need to focus on developing your employer brand, which you can read about in our post here. To keep and cultivate the talent you already have, consider new methods.

Millennials aren’t looking for structured training programs that develop leadership skills; they want hands-on practice developing projects. Pairing them up with senior managers and executives to co-lead a project or strategic initiative provides a chance for mentoring relationships to emerge. Millennials want mentors, and those interactions can develop between individuals when they share authentic objectives.

Millennials also aren’t shy about voicing their desire for their companies to make an impact on society that’s in line with their values, such as inclusiveness and sustainability. Organizations need to allow for—and reward—leaders who empower others to succeed and flatten corporate hierarchies, developing team-based responsibilities and fluid decision-making processes.

Your company can build these possibilities into its culture and employer brand. Even your career site can bring these opportunities and company values up front for potential hires to notice.

Filling the Gaps

If Millennials lack industry and technical expertise, then continuing education is key. Online workforce development can be extremely useful for younger workers (68% said they find online training most effective). Google, for example, trains employees in leadership and teamwork with inexpensive online modules. Co-leadership projects and more formal mentoring programs can also set up the conditions for older workers to pass along their knowledge and model necessary skills for your industry.

Millennials also want more frequent feedback and reviews, as several studies have shown. Technology now enables almost real-time performance management, yet 58% of companies still use spreadsheets to track performance metrics. Your company can use that technology to support and challenge younger workers to excel, from entry level to management.

Cultivating Loyalty

More than half of Millennials worldwide would like to leave their current employer within the next two years. What about the more loyal Millennials? Those who seek to stay longer with their companies are those who perceive strong support for those who want to lead and believe their organizations define and pursue purposes beyond profit.